When Handed Lemons

The day started with a great 50 mile bike ride on the tandem with Laura and CDV tagged along. In Elk Point we picked up Dave H. and Kathy R. who came up from North Sioux/Dakota Dunes area. It was breezy on the way down but we held our own. For the whole ride we averaged 17.7 which is pretty darn good for the Big Blue Tandem at this point. It's a great 50 mile loop as it is flat as a pancake as you can see below.



Part two of the day was supposed to be the fun with the family portion of the day. After a round of disc golf in the park we came home and had a mid-afternoon chow down. We set up the "be good and you will have a surprise" rules for the afternoon. The surprise was going to Wild Water West with the kids. Right before we left I checked the weather and it looked rough up that way so I called up to Wild Water West. The girl that answered said that the weather was pretty rough but usually they open up about a half hour after the storm goes through so we started to venture north.

As we got closer to Lennox the storm warnings were further to the East but the tail end of the rain was coming down, still pretty heavy. Shortly after getting through Lennox, it was evident the amount of rain that had gone through as it was standing in the fields and small creeks were overflowing their banks. As we neared Wild Water West, there was a fire truck on the side of the road with it's lights flashing. It became evident why it was there. A HUGE tree was covering 3/4 of the road. Another tree was down and across the road a house had lost a significant portion of its roof. It was evident that Wild Water West took a significant blunt of the storm as well. We parked and went closer but it was a mess. They were closed. All this way and we were shut out. **Late edit** We just watched KSFY news and the Ford Deathstar was caught driving around the big tree on the road. Even the van got its 5 seconds of fame.



Mr. Murphy: Why must your law follow me so. What to do? We've come all this way. I'm not just going home. Lemons. Damnable lemons. I decided to turn towards Sioux Falls as I didn't want to go back through the same mess we just drove though. As I drove to Sioux Falls we decided to go to eat our lunches we had packed and then we went to Chuck E Cheese to play games to at least make a little "lemonade" out of the lemons handed to us. The kids all had fun and nobody complained about the trade off.

After playing games and eating at Taco Bell on Louise, we headed for home and picked up a couple movies to chill out with. Interesting day to say the least, but still was a good time. I'm thinking about NOT leaving the house tomorrow though!